


The Distraction

by aspertiia



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures
Genre: Birthday, Gen, Surprise Party, happy birthday lack :), mentions of whi-two and white
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:47:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23987608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aspertiia/pseuds/aspertiia
Summary: The distant sound of dishes clicking together mixed with the noise of the coffee machine steam cleaning itself. Black sat back in his chair, his own plate emptied of its sandwich. He had been armed with the task of keeping Lack distracted until he was given the signal.Maybe it would be easier said than done, Black was very aware of how perceptive Lack could be when he wanted to, and he wanted to get through this exchange with the least amount of questions as possible.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	The Distraction

**Author's Note:**

> Happy birthday lack-two!!!!!! I'm posting this a lil early but I'm just excited
> 
> also please talk to me abt the unova squad on my [tumblr](https://xurktalks.tumblr.com/) im love them

The distant sound of dishes clicking together mixed with the noise of the coffee machine steam cleaning itself. Black sat back in his chair, his own plate emptied of its sandwich. He had been armed with the task of keeping Lack distracted until he was given the signal. 

Maybe it would be easier said than done, Black was very aware of how perceptive Lack could be when he wanted to, and he wanted to get through this exchange with the least amount of questions as possible. He… wasn’t the best liar in the world, and he wasn’t quite prepared to reveal what the plan was yet. 

Lack was sat opposite him, pushing around a salad- of all things, he almost made Black feel bad for wanting a  _ sandwich  _ when the option of cookies was  _ right there _ \- on his plate with his fork. Some of it was missing, but Black knew for a fact pieces of cucumber had been pierced and handed over to Dewott. 

He had said  _ no Pokémon _ ! Apparently Dewott didn’t count, and had to sit with the two of them anyway. Black wasn’t quite sure if he could cope with matching serious-almost-grumpy expressions looking at him every time he opened his mouth.

He couldn’t stop himself from opening his mouth either way, so he guessed he just had to cope. 

“Are you actually going to eat any of that?” Black finally asked, feeling he asked maybe far too long into just watching Lack push it around. The younger looked up with his face still settled into its usual scowl, before pushing it over in Dewott’s direction. Black only took a second to process the movement; once he saw Dewott start to throw the greenery into his mouth, he opened his own again. 

“Okay, you weren’t hungry?” 

“Why did you invite me here.” The younger of the two never really phrased things as  _ questions, _ more-so demanding answers from people when he didn’t understand. 

Black hummed, turned to look out the nearby window and people-watched for a moment. It wasn’t until the incessant kicking against his shin was too unbearable that he actually turned to answer. “Look.” Lack’s eyes were already on him, but one of his eyebrows raised curiously. “Me and Prez absolutely do  _ not  _ mind that you and Whi tricked your ways into moving in-” 

Black and White had gotten an apartment not too long ago, big enough to have a guest room and a sitting area with one of those L shaped couches. They had room to host! White had said being able to host small get-togethers would be good for business, especially if they could prove they were professional by their interior design. 

Or, it would be good for business, had Whi not taken the guest room for her own. It wouldn’t have been all bad if it were  _ just  _ Whi, she didn’t take up much space. Lack, however, had settled himself on the couch. 

Black had tried to lighten the mood for White, saying that they couldn’t get a better security system for free. White’s mood was  _ not  _ lightened in the least.

“You’re kicking me out?” Lack asked, interrupting Black from his thoughts. 

The older of the two choked on air. “WHAT?” 

Black had the decency to look embarrassed that he scared a waitress into dropping coffee nearby with his yell.

“No!” He yelled, at a much more acceptable indoor volume. “Look. Listen.” Lack’s eyes still had never left him, but when Black checked he was looking much more bored than before. “We literally  _ don’t mind  _ that you moved in.” It took White a while to get used to them being there, but Black wasn’t lying. “It’s just…” 

“Just..?” 

Black gestured around with his hands helplessly. “You’ve barely done anything since you’ve moved in.” Lack’s mouth opened to protest, and Black waved his hands to stop him. “I’m not accusing you of being lazy or anything! It’s just.. You know! Um…” He felt like he was gaining impatient stares as he tried to gather up his words.  _ Why  _ did he have to bring Dewott? He always pulled that face when Black was clearly trying to  _ think _ . The self-imposed no Pokémon rule stopped him from bringing his much needed Musha. 

“Well?” Lack asked.

“We’re all kind of… worried that you’re…” Black struggled along, waving his hands to try and hurry his brain along. “Letting the whole getting fired thing get to you too much.” 

Lack’s patience was gone, and his face scrunched up in a scowl. 

“Listen, listen, listen!” Black basically demanded, which stopped Lack’s posture from changing from ‘sitting uncomfortably’ to ‘leaving right now’. “We get that you gotta, you know, process it. It’s hard, a big change to your life, I get it!”    
Lack rolled his eyes. “But?”   
“Bu-ut,” Black drew his vowel out, “nobody thinks you’re really gonna get over it if you just… do nothing until you feel better.” 

“What do you expect me to do?” Lack’s expression didn’t look friendly in the slightest. “I don’t know what else  _ to  _ do. I didn’t learn anything else other than working for the Interpol.” 

“Well just… Don’t you have your  _ own  _ dreams? Now’s your chance to follow them.” The older of the pair tried his best to smile through the hard discussion. 

“I don’t  _ have  _ dreams.” 

Black coughed loudly as he choked on his own breath. “You don’t have  _ dreams _ ?” Lack shook his head in response. “Not a single thing?” He shook his head again. “Not even, like… I don’t know, normal kid things? Having a best friend?” 

Lack looked away. “I don’t  _ need  _ people.” 

He scoffed at Lack’s response, which made him shoot a glare in Black’s direction. “Everyone needs someone.” He leaned his arm on the table, using the other to gesture in nonsensical ways. “Like, if you don’t have someone you’re close to, you just bottle stuff up, yeah?” Lack looked at him as if he didn’t believe that would be an actual problem for him. “Like, I know, Whi kinda let on about you saying something about not understanding fear or pity.” Black pointedly averted his eyes back out the window to watch people pass by. “But, like, that doesn’t mean things  _ can’t  _ bother you. Being fired is bothering you! You can talk about it with me, I won’t judge.” 

“I don’t want to talk about it with  _ you _ .” Lack said, in a tone that reminded Black of a grouchy child. 

However, Black couldn’t help but feel like this was a step forward. “Okay, then who do you want to talk to? I’m sure they won’t mind if you vent a little. We’re all here for you.” 

“My old supervisor, he might consider giving me my job back.”    
Black sank in his seat until his head barely poked above the table. “You  _ know  _ that’s not what I meant.” 

Lack crossed his arms. “That’s who I would like to talk to.”

Black climbed back into a regular sit, and heaved a sigh. “Lack, buddy, it’s been two years.” His scowl didn’t lift at the reminder, not that Black expected it to. “I know you were basically raised for that job, it’s hard to move on from stuff like that, but… me, Prez, Whi, we’re all here for you! We wanna help you get back on your feet.” 

Lack’s expression was breaking, perhaps into the smallest of longing smiles, Black could’ve sworn he might’ve been hallucinating it. “That would be… nice.” He couldn’t believe his ears. “It’s not my dream,” Black could accept that, “but having people to talk to would be... nice.” 

Black smiled, genuinely. “Who knows, maybe you wanna go back to the Pokéstar Studios thing. I hear people thought you played a good Dewott Kid!” 

Lack’s scowl settled back into place and Black could accept this was reality again. “You just want me to work for White.” Dewott failed to look very impressed at the suggestion as well.

“Well… it’d help with rent.” 

Black jumped at the feeling of his Xtransceiver buzzing on his wrist, the sign for him to bring Lack back to the apartment. 

“Hey, let's get back, okay?” He offered as an attempt at a smooth transition. “I think the staff here are sick of us.”

Lack stared suspiciously, but gathered his things. “Sick of  _ you _ , maybe.”

Dewott scooted off of his chair, and the two followed Black outside, and in the direction of the apartment. 

Black’s pace was fast as he walked, he was bordering on a jog. He just had to get them there as fast as he could. The quicker they made it, the less likely Lack was to catch on to what was happening. Everything was going to go to plan and White was going to tell him he had done a good job. Everything was going so well, but-

“What’s the hurry?” Lack called, one of the few times he’s asked a question and it sounded like one. 

Black tried to think of a lie, so that things could still be a surprise when they got there. “Prez is ordering take-out and if we don’t hurry we won’t get anything.” 

His hand was on the front door, he was so close to doing a good job. Lack’s comments were trying to ruin it. “White never orders take-out.” Barely anything ever got past him, and Black could scream in frustration that he couldn’t let this drop. “We also just ate.”

“Yeah, well, she is. And you didn’t even  _ eat  _ yours.” He hurried, and pushed the door open as fast as he could. 

Lack’s mouth opened to make further protests, but instead was left to hang open at the sight of the apartment. 

Birthday decorations were set up on every wall, balloons in the shape of a one and a five sat in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows. A cake was even sat at the dining table, also decorated with the same one and five. 

“ **_Surprise!_ ** ” Whi and White’s voices called as they jumped up from behind the couch. The Pokémon -who could actually fit indoors without breaking anything- all yelled their own excited cheers in response. 

Black looked back over his shoulder and grinned wide at the utter shock on his junior’s face. 

“Happy Birthday, Lack.” 


End file.
